Dennis, Go into the Configuration Manager, and bring up the Default Configuration with Control+Shift+d. Look in the Verbosity Options dialog under whatever Verbosity level you are using and see if you have unchecked the Help balloons checkbox. Help Balloons can also be disabled with a set of utilities called Power Toys. Gary King w4wkz@xxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: dennis To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 4:22 PM Subject: jaws no longer speaks popup balloon messages hi listers. the subject says it all. i changed something on my machine that i can't remember how to change back. when popup balloons popup i here the balloon sound but jaws won't say what it is. does anybody know how i can get this back? thanks for any and all help.